Kittens, Dogs - BLEH - Here's Some Cute Photos Of Rats!

[THUNDER HANDS]

Because rats need love too. <the theme from 'Ben' suddenly pops into my head> :D

[Bertha Venation]

1. top photo's way cute... the third one

is a little scary.

Any of these critters your pets?

[THUNDER HANDS]

2. hell no

I wouldn't touch a real rat with a 10-foot pole. :D

[AlienGirl]

4. Awww...

I have a rattie-baby who could change your mind!

Tucker

[THUNDER HANDS]

5. maybe if they were small

I had hampsters as a kid, so a rat shouldn't be that much different. And I believe rats are actually very smart animals, right?

[AlienGirl]

9. Rats are smarter than hamsters...

Also more social--hamsters are solitary, nocturnal creatures, while rats are sociable and will adapt to humans' schedules. And domestic rats have been bred for many generations not to bite humans, no matter what awful thing the human is doing to them.

My rat comes when called, is box-trained (he had a couple "accidents" when out, but mostly he lets me know when he needs to go back to his cage), and often rides around inside of my shirt.

Tucker

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

10. Yes, rats are far smarter than hamsters. Even smarter than

Guinea Pigs.
I am constantly amazed at some of the things they come up with.

[AlienGirl]

14. One of my rats, Abbie, might've been smarter than *me*!

Abbie was the white baby in the Rat Pack litter that came when I bred Hobie to my friend Hyb's girl-rat. Hobie was a large agouti and Hyb's girl was a hooded rat; between them they had a litter of agouti, grey, and hooded babies--and Abbie, a stunning pink-eyed-white.

Abbie quickly became alpha rat, and decided it was his job in life to challenge authority (namely, me). He spent his time figuring out how to get out of the cage. Every time I'd change the locking mechanism, he'd walk back and forth around it, and I could see the little thought-gears just whirring away in his mind. The funny part was, when Abbie did manage to open the door, he wouldn't go far. He'd sit on top of the cage and wait for me, then give me this look of triumph when I finally came along to put him back in. He also always grunted angrily at me if I tried to put him in the cage before he was darn well ready to go.

Abbie, like all the Rat Pack babies, eventually succumbed to an inherited kidney disorder. :-( I still miss the little guy. And I'm still not sure whether I outsmarted him for long.

Tucker

[THUNDER HANDS]

16. wow

Your rats were waaaay cooler than my hampsters. All my hampsters did was eat, crap, sleep and eventually - cannibalize eachother.

[AlienGirl]

15. Ting's Logic Problem

When Huntington was very young, and still living in a Kritter Keeper, he had a water bottle start leaking one night while I was sleeping. When I woke up, he had emptied his food dish and dragged it under the spout, and the bottle had leaked into the dish--without getting the floor wet. (Rats don't like wet feet.)

Tucker

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

7. Those are some cute rats.... here is a pic of Hope and Lucky

in their hi-rise rat coop world.

[AlienGirl]

6. That third photo

It's of a rat temple in India. Very interesting place; the townspeople were protected from the plague because they moved in with the temple rats, who kept invading, plague-flea-havin' wild rats away.

Tucker

[THUNDER HANDS]

8. really?

Why wouldn't the plague just jump to the new rats? If they were spread by fleas or vermin, don't you think the new rats would have just picked up the plague too?

I wonder why they didn't.

[AlienGirl]

18. The foreign rats probably didn't come close enough

They probably smelled the temple rat population, maybe exchanged a squeak or two, and realized they were outnumbered. Rats don't fight if the can avoid it, so the wild rats probably found it easier just to move on, rather than try to enter the temple.

Tucker

[AlienGirl]

3. What cute ratties!

Riley wants to go to that rat temple one day!

Tucker

[AlienGirl]

11. More cute rats!

Rats and kids pic I found somewhere online:



And here is the only picture on my rat, Ting, on the Web! (The odd story is because he is also a character in my Shadowrun game; that's his backstory.)

Huntington You have to click to view because it's Geocities.

Tucker

[THUNDER HANDS]

12. aww, very cute

I've never really considered getting a rat before, but if my kids ever want one I'll definately not oppose it (the wife on the other hand...)

:D

[AlienGirl]

20. Rats laugh and dream

Scientists have proven that rats laugh ultrasonically when tickled, and that they dream in a meaningful way (often about the prior day's events).

Tucker

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

21. That is how we got ours. The kids rescued them from a nature

center that was going to feed them to snakes if no one took them. So, they and the wife took them, brought them home, and set them up. Of course two days later, I was the only one feeding them and playing with them, so they became attached to me.
They are now "my" rats.

[THUNDER HANDS]

13. oops...dupe message

But that rat is still cute, nonetheless. Just wish he woulda held still for the camera. :)

[jonnyblitz]

17. Padraig would love all of them! n/t

[Padraig18]

19. Im partial to rodents

I have a white mouse and a ferret both. :)

[AlienGirl]

22. Aww!

I had a trio of mice once--they were never as friendly as my rats, but the golden mouse, Marilyn, got used to being handled. She had an autoimmune problem that made her itch like crazy, so I bathed her with Aveeno a lot and had to give her Prednisone on a regular basis.

Mostly I liked watching them build tunnels in their bedding and "decorate" their house!

Tucker

[AlienGirl]

23. The rat in Picture #4

I think that's a Gambian Giant Pouched Rat. (The pouches are in their cheeks.) They are being trained to sniff out land mines to be dug up, because rats are too light to set them off (unlike dogs).

Tucker

[ajacobson]

24. Fancy (pet) rats are a blast

They are way smart, trainable and easy to take care of. We had two for a long time (fortunately they were same sex--no little rats).

One got out of the rat house once and visited the inside of a dog's mouth (actually got passed from dog to dog in all the confusion, there was a scrum involving all the dogs and both of the two-leggers in the household). The rat survived but had pronounced emotional problems after that.